Adam Krawitz

My research focuses on the mental and neural bases of working memory, executive control, and decision making using the methods of computational cognitive neuroscience.

I am deeply interested in how people dynamically modify their behavior in response to ongoing events and in the service of their evolving goals. This occurs at an intermediate time scale of seconds and minutes, slower than direct reactions to stimuli, and faster than long-term learning and skill acquisition.

Consider a basketball player executing a called play, who must remember the play as she performs highly practiced skills and reacts to the opposition, or a short-order cook, who keeps in mind multiple orders while tracking how long each item needs on the grill.

These behaviors rely on a “mental operating system” to remember, update, and coordinate recently perceived information to guide ongoing behavior. To study this system, I use the converging methods of behavioral experimentation, computational modeling, and functional brain imaging.

Interests

• Computational cognitive neuroscience
• Working memory
• Executive control
• Decision making

Publications

Ahn, W.-Y., Krawitz, A., Kim, W., Busemeyer, J. R., & Brown, J. W. (2011). A model-based fMRI analysis with hierarchical Bayesian parameter estimation. Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, 4(2), 95-110. doi:10.1037/a0020684

Krawitz, A., Braver, T. S., Barch, D. M., Brown, J. W. (2011). Impaired error-likelihood prediction in medial prefrontal cortex in schizophrenia. NeuroImage, 54(2), 1506-1517. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.09.027

Krawitz, A., Fukunaga, R., Brown, J. W. (2010). Anterior insula activity predicts the influence of positively framed messages on decision making. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 10(3), 392-405. doi:10.3758/CABN.10.3.392

Mueller, S. T., Krawitz, A. (2009). Reconsidering the two-second decay hypothesis in verbal working memory. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 53, 14-25. doi:10.1016/j.jmp.2008.11.001